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Bruins attitude needs ‘healthier direction’

Posted on by Josh L
Bruins attitude needs ‘healthier direction’


Bruins

Thursday’s 5-2 loss to the Dallas Stars dropped the Bruins to 3-4-1.

Bruins attitude needs ‘healthier direction’

Bruins’ Justin Brazeau goes up against Stars’ goaltender Casey DeSmith. AP Photo/Steven Senne

Brad Marchand is not the only Bruin who felt the wrath of Jim Montgomery.

Amid another night of turnover issues, penalty issues and a lack of attention to detail, Boston’s third-year bench boss delivered another fiery message to his club during a televised timeout.

Whatever message Montgomery was trying to convey after he watched David Pastrnak take his second penalty in the middle did not resonate with the rest of the club. Bruins gave up their third power-play goal after halftime when former teammate Tyler Seguin scored his fourth of the season at 8:59 of the second.

The Bruins did get some quality looks on Casey DeSmith.

But on every spurt, from Matthew Poitras connecting with Pastrnak for the game’s first score to Justin Brazeau finishing off Trent Frederick’s volley, the Bruins countered more ill-timed fouls with the offensive stick. And for every save made by Jeremy Swainman came another round of bloated penalty shootouts.

As a result, Thursday’s 5-2 setback dropped the Bruins to 3-4-1. Here are some takeaways as the B’s begin their worst eight-game season-opening stretch since going 3-5 to start the 2011-12 campaign.

Montgomery wants a healthier attitude from his club.

Sometimes a results-oriented business can lead to an over-focus on wins and losses over the course of a long season. Montgomery feels the Bruins are falling into that trap after the first eight games of the new year.

Indeed, the Bruins don’t look like a confident group. After all, it’s hard to create that kind of atmosphere when they’re playing behind, with untimely turnovers and penalty trouble.

In turn, the Bruins continue to seek instant gratification instead of playing for their identity. According to Montgomery, their focus is not where it needs to be right now.

“Our attitude needs to move in a better and healthier direction…” Montgomery said… “as in trying to control what you can control, which is trying to succeed in your role. Our attitude is not at the moment. They are on the results. And when your attitude is about results, you tend to take too many penalties because you get frustrated quickly, and you often give the puck up because you don’t want to work on offense. You want immediate results. That attitude of not being willing to work for what we want to get to achieve our team play is causing us problems right now.”

Are there disappointments? Of course. But they are not mounted. Not yet anyway.

Indeed, the Bruins are in desperate need of a spark to get their struggling offense going. Montgomery’s attempts to maneuver his roster have not yielded results, prompting much of the fan base to suggest signing Tyler Johnson or promoting Providence’s Fabian Lysell.

Still, the Bruins knew they would enter the season as a work in progress after undergoing a major roster shakeup in the offseason. Despite this, Marchand believes that they will be able to correct many mistakes in due time.

“A lot of the mistakes we make and the reasons we lose are a lack of respect for the game, consistency and detail. Those are things you can fix,” Marchand said after the two penalties. “When you don’t have enough effort and guys don’t care, that’s a different problem and that’s not what we have.”

The Bruins are in unfamiliar territory early in the season.

With a loaded roster, the Bruins compiled a 9-1 record during the first month of the Montgomery era en route to a record-setting regular season.

A year later, during a transition season, Montgomery started the first month of the post-Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci era with an 8-0-1 record.

Of course, the underachieving Florida Panthers ruined Boston’s Cup hopes. The first year ended in a shocking way, while the next season produced a much less surprising result.

Right now, the Bruins aren’t close to joining the Panthers or Stars among the NHL’s elite. In fact, they are included unfamiliar early season territory at Montgomery.

Due to injuries in rookie camp to Elias Lindholm and Max Jones or Swayman’s late arrival after signing a $66 million extension, the Bruins were dealing with a few moving parts. In this regard, they are catching up a little in the development of chemistry with each other.

The move does not exempt them from turnover or penalty issues. Nor does it excuse them from sluggish breakouts, a slow power play, or defensive breakdowns.

The opening contests give them one reminder: The season doesn’t end in October. But the Bruins need to fix their troubling tendency to play catch-up hockey as soon as possible.

“It’s a little new territory for that to happen to us this early in the year,” defensive end Charlie McAvoy said. “We’ve been gangbusters the last few years, but I think our attitude about things hasn’t made us the best team in October.”

Are the Bruins closer to a breakthrough than we think?

Penalties and turnovers once again put the Bruins in a tough spot. But their level of engagement improved between the final two games of their road trip in Utah and Nashville and Thursday’s road trip.

While it wasn’t necessarily a night-and-day comparison, the Bruins looked a little more assertive in getting pucks into high-danger zones. Even with another night of sloppy passing, they produced some quality DeSmith looks behind Brazeau’s net play and Pastrnak’s creativity.

“It feels like we’re close,” McEvoy said. “The last two games we’re getting that Class A look. The power play is getting that look. We go low. We approach the network. We’re one game behind a lot of those (chances).”

So close, but still far.

With so much time spent on the penalty kill, the Bruins have hardly established any flow at 5-on-5. The PK units continue to be taxed, forcing Montgomery to adjust his lineup after each shortfall.

Perhaps the Bruins will finally find a more consistent defense if they can limit their mistakes and create more chances in the 5-on-5 game. However, among another batch of humble pie, early-season woes aren’t necessarily the worst thing.

“This is a tough league. It will quickly humble you,” Marchand added. “If any team thinks they’re just going to roll, then they’ve got something else. It’s a great opportunity for us to take advantage of it and get better and go through this process of simplifying (our game). Everything will be fine with us.”